The American Dream, Day 2 - Class Recap

At the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. Photo taken by my friend Ryan!

Hello everyone,

Welcome back from your Labor Day weekend! Today, we started up with class content for real, as we began thinking about what makes someone "American" and what the "American Dream" is.

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Behavior LT 3: I can communicate and work effectively within a team or group.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: "Dream On" by Aerosmith. Selected for today because of our discussion of what the American Dream is and whether or not it exists. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/4/18:
News Brief/Blog Recap - Max
The Summer
American Dream
Mother to Son

Homework: Read the blog. Create a slogan about the American Dream, ready to share next class. Bring art supplies if you want, as we will be creating posters next class! The next news brief is assigned to: Bailey.

News Brief/Blog Recap: Today's news brief was brought in by Max, who selected an article about this story: NYTimes.com - Map: Tracking Tropical Storm Gordon’s Path Toward the Gulf Coast. We discussed this story for a bit and then moved on.

We also checked in about the weekend and if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.

Bailey was selected to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

We also watched Westview's Wildcat News for the first time this year, which can be found here if you missed class or wanted to see it again:

I also showed this website and the blog post from last class, so students could see the level of detail with each post.

The Summer: At the end of the last class, I asked students to get into groups and then asked what happened in the United States over the summer, as we made a class list of big events. Today, we finished this activity, as we continue to make connections with what is currently happening in America to what we will be studying this year.

American Dream: To really start with content for the course this year, I wanted to begin by defining "American" and the idea of the "American Dream" in class. To go with this, here is the PowerPoint we went through together:

Google Slides - American Dream PowerPoint

First, we defined "American" by ourselves, then worked in small groups to come up with combined definitions, then talked together as a class about what makes someone American.

I then asked everyone to try and define with the "American Dream" is in a free write. After the free write, I showed this video:

We have a fair amount of first generation American students in our classes, so I was particularly interested in these definitions!

Mother to Son: Next, we read a poem called "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. Here is the poem and the in class assignment that goes with it (create a copy in your Google Drive if you missed class):

Google Drive - Mother to Son Poem Analysis

We discussed in class about the tone and dialect of the poem, as Mr. Puterbaugh noted some of the historical context to me when I shared it with him.

We ended by continuing to investigate the American Dream and thinking of slogans that we will use next class in your first graded assignment. Thank you for your work in class today!